IGCSE + Online

This semester turned out to be a bit of a disappointment- I returned in January to find out I had a class of only two students. Then halfway through the preparations for our exam, we went online; only later to find out that the exams are cancelled altogether. To top it all off, this was my LAST chance to teach this class, which I love, due to our school no longer running the program.

Nonetheless, I was privileged to be a part of these students’ creative journeys and I am excited to see where it takes them in the future!

Making Art With Alternative Materials

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  Student work created with coffee, cocoa, mulberry leaf powder and nail polish!

As artists, we are constantly creating and coming up with new ideas. Facing limitations in terms of materials, especially during at-home learning, proves to be no barrier in continuing to make art! I expanded my own horizons in making my first YouTube tutorial to introduce my students to working with alternative materials, click here to check it out.

Bookbinding is typically one of my year end activities, in an attempt to recycle old drawings and paper from the semester. I saw artists all over the internet embarking on quarantine projects and thought it would be neat for us as well to create a collection of work from this time (not knowing that our at-home learning would last the entire fourth quarter!) After binding our own COVID Diaries, I gave the students two assignments per week, consisting of one sketchbook assignment (which they chose from a list) and one art challenge, which we started during our weekly class calls. Here are some of my favourite submissions:

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  Data Drawing

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  Coronavirus Inspired

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  View Out the Window

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  COVID Cartoon

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  Drawing to Music

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  Draw Your Daily Schedule

Careers in Art

The last three weeks of school, we explored different careers in the arts and students again had a choice of projects:

Interior Designer

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Pop Up Drawing

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Corona Maison

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Miniature Model

For the first week, we explored Interior Design. Students had the choice to 1) create a pop up room design drawing, 2) create a drawing of their ideal quarantine space (part of a worldwide collaborative drawing project) or 3) create a 3D miniature model. You can see further project details here.

Graphic Designer

Quaranzine

Fashion Designer

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Wearable Art

Photographer

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Covid Portraits inspired by Gregg Segal

For week two of Careers in Art, students had the choice to take on the role of either a graphic designer, a fashion designer or a photographer. As a graphic designer, the task was to write and illustrate a self published zine, or Quaranzine; including both images and text in a handmade book made from one sheet of paper. To explore fashion design, students were challenged to create a piece of wearable art. This could be an accessory, such as a bag or watch, or an entire outfit. The only limitation was that it should be made from recycled materials such as paper or cardboard. To explore photography, we took inspiration from photographer Gregg Segal and his portrait series called Daily Bread. The task was to first collect items that have been important to students during quarantine and at home learning, to arrange these items around themselves and have their photograph taken. See further project details here.

Curator

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The final project was first to create a collection of miniature artworks that showed unity, and secondly, to organize and present this collection for display to an audience. The details for this project can be found here.

I am so proud of all of the work my students achieved during at home learning! I learned new ways to incorporate technology into my art curriculum and my students stayed engaged and participatory throughout each new weekly challenge, learning many new techniques and processes. I really enjoyed seeing the work they turned in each week, though I missed watching the creative process at work in the classroom.

Here’s to the end of the year, and the end of a season. A job well done, for everyone!

Decay

This was a unit I did with my IGCSE class in the final weeks of the first semester. I wanted them to have the experience of working with a midterm exam topic to practice working within a limited time, similar to the final exam.

The topic was decay. We began by brainstorming the word, looking at the definition and collecting ideas for subjects pertaining to the topic. I had them do observational drawings of objects, both from my collection and from items they brought in.

After the students had several drawings, we narrowed in to the topic a bit more with a specified task: either to design a fashion garment inspired by decay, or to develop a final piece to be shown in an exhibition on decay. Once the students chose a direction, they began to develop their ideas from their original starting point drawings.

I did a workshop showing them different techniques for distressing paper and fabric to make it look old, worn and decayed. They explored these techniques in their sketchbooks and incorporated some of them into their final ideas.

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The final piece was to be created during three one and a half hour exam slots. My students went into the exam knowing exactly which of their ideas they were going to recreate, what materials they needed and had thought out the steps for completion. There was an interruption of snow amidst the creating, so the midterm was not actually finished before the semester ended. Despite this small hiccup, I think all of them were familiarized with the exam process and the steps needed for taking a topic from the brainstorming stages to completion.

Micro>Macro Drawing

I am teaching the Cambridge IGCSE Art and Design course for the second time this year. Once again, I only have four students. I am facing difficulties this year mostly with room scheduling- there is only one art room and two art courses running at the same time (a mostly good problem!) This week was experimental, mixed media drawing; so I decided we would draw on the floor- out on the 5th floor landing. As it is just outside the art room, we had easy access to materials and sinks for clean up. The setting was more relaxed- yoga mats instead of the typical table and chairs- and since more traffic comes through the stairwell, we had more visitors be a part of the excitement.

The students picked from a selection of natural objects to draw. We used bigger sheets of paper- the goal was to zoom in on a section of the object and experiment with materials to replicate the texture. Media attempted for this drawing included charcoal, conte, pastel, watercolour and ink. Following a discussion of the finished results, I had them experiment drawing with thread- stitching overtop of their drawings to create additional texture and interest. I gave them ideas of different embroidery stitches to try and they did the rest. I am so excited to work with this very talented and self motivated group- this is just the beginning!

Artist Trading Cards

Wait, a first post of the school year already? Not really, this one is long awaited from last year’s very hurried end.

I began last year with a year long final project, one that has been trending on art teaching blogs out there: ARTIST TRADING CARDS.

The premise of the project was that throughout the year, students would be working on a collection of miniature, one of a kind, quality artworks which would be assessed and traded at the end of the year.

The artist trading card helped to solve a continuous problem I have in the art room, early finishers. If a student had finished their assignment early, they could work on a card- sometimes it was based on a prompt from me, other times it was their choice for the artwork. I also used the cards to practice ideas and techniques before starting bigger projects. Examples of these would be:

Do you recognize these from projects we did this year? Clay Creatures and Scratchboard

We also made cards to emulate well known artists and art styles. Seen here are portraits in the styles of Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Picasso

I especially enjoyed watching students experiment with new materials, taking what I introduced in projects and being creative with their own ideas. Here are a few more favourites:

The last element of the project, before each student handed in all of their cards made during the year, was to make a case. I had some clever and unique designs- including bands, envelopes, folders and boxes!

Poster Design

I did it… I decided to take a leap and delve into the field of design. We began our unit with mini lessons on typefaces and layout. With limitations of technology, we used old magazines to identify differences in type and find different layouts of type and image used in advertising.

The project paired students in groups to work in a real life design situation… designing posters for the upcoming middle school play, a radio theatre broadcast. The students brainstormed and came up with idea sketches which were discussed with me before they took their ideas to realization. I was impressed on how well everyone worked together, as I have never attempted group art projects before- and equally proud with the finished designs.

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Series III

I have posted this project before, but I wanted to share some favourites from this past semester. I am always amazed to watch the student’s creative ideas evolve!

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Exploring Natural Forms: Repetition+Variation

Part A of a two part project. Students chose a natural object from my own collection to explore and worked in their sketchbooks at first to test out different mixed media combinations. They chose limitations for their piece in regards to the layout of their compositions and media, and created a grid of twelve compositions. These compositions were to show repetition and variation in exploring an object and throughout the piece as a whole.

I am so very proud of what they have accomplished and how far they have come!

And of course, I had to try it out for myself!

 

Limitations=Creativity

For the past two classes, we have explored the idea of making art with rules or restrictions. I spent part of an evening coming up with a series of rules for the class to follow. Most of the rules dictated how a piece was to be drawn, and did not specify exactly what to draw or what tool to use. We watched Phil Hansen’s TED talk Embrace the Shake on making art with limitations, and briefly discussed what we had seen in his series Goodbye Art. I had students choose an object from my collection of seed pods, shells and pinecones to continue with our theme of exploring natural forms. Next, they picked a rule from the jar which they needed to follow in making a drawing of the chosen object. I think all my students ended up with some very interesting and creative outcomes. We all agreed that the idea of following set rules or restrictions is not necessarily limiting, but helpful to further expand ideas in the creative process.

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